


Watch the Eggs!

by NotGarfield



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Baking, Birthday, F/M, Family Bonding, Future, but her students are hopeless, marinette is a good teacher
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 06:02:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21582295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotGarfield/pseuds/NotGarfield
Summary: Gabriel and Nathalie, with Marinette's help, attempt to bake Adrien a cake for his birthday. It does not go well. For the Gabenath Server November gift exchange.
Relationships: Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth/Nathalie Sancoeur
Comments: 11
Kudos: 98





	Watch the Eggs!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [seasonofthegeek](https://archiveofourown.org/users/seasonofthegeek/gifts).

> This story is for the November gift exchange in the Gabenath Server. Season, I hope you have as much fun reading this as I did writing it for you!

Nathalie heard a sharp curse from behind her, and turned on her heel to see Gabriel holding a bag of flour, his front covered in white. She pressed a hand to her mouth to keep from laughing. Unfortunately, after so many years of knowing each other, there was no gesture of hers that he couldn’t decipher.

“Funny, is it?” he said with a frown, setting the bag on the counter and attempting to brush the flour off his shirt. Since his hands were also covered in it, the gesture didn’t accomplish much.

Nathalie shrugged. “I said you should have worn casual clothes.”

“I did!”

“Taking off your suit jacket does not make it a casual outfit.” Nathalie gestured at her own jeans and t-shirt. “Did you really think you could bake a cake without getting messy?”

Whatever he was going to say in reply was cut off by a clang. Both adults spun round in time to see Marinette seize a mixing bowl that was teetering on the edge of the counter, having apparently fallen from an upper cabinet a moment before. “Sorry!” she said. “The flour is going to go in here, Monsieur Agreste.”

Gabriel mumbled under his breath, but accepted the bowl when Marinette handed it to him, and started to measure out the flour. 

Unluckily, despite her teasing, Nathalie didn’t have much experience in kitchens either. Marinette had barely turned her back on her at the stove before the kitchen was filled with the smell of burning, and when she went to take the pot off the heat, she grabbed onto the handles without oven mitts and jumped back with a yelp. Marinette glanced over in concern at the sound, but Gabriel whirled to face her, panic flashing across his face.

Nathalie saw where his hand was going, and exclaimed, too late: “Gabriel, watch the” -

There was a crunching and splattering noise, and Gabriel looked down at the floor, the momentary fear on his face morphing into a glare.

“...Eggs,” Nathalie finished weakly. 

There was a tense pause, during which the burning smell grew stronger, and the puddle of raw egg slowly spread across the floor. Marinette was the first to act. “I’ll get you some burn gel, Nathalie,” she said, and reached to turn off the stovetop before vanishing through the kitchen door.

Nathalie shut her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, Gabriel was moving to get a rag from the sink. “Stop,” she said firmly, pointing at his feet. “You’re tracking egg everywhere. Take your shoes off.”

He did as told. Nathalie went to the sink, stepping carefully to give a wide berth to the splatters, and ran some cold water over her hands before wetting down a rag; the burns across her palms were turning red and beginning to throb. As she turned the cloth under the tap, a pair of arms reached around her shoulders and tried to take it from her.

“Let me,” Gabriel said. “I’m the one who caused the mess, and you’re hurt.”

Nathalie looked back at him over her shoulder, refusing to relinquish the rag. “I’ve had worse.”

Gabriel’s face turned even darker at that, and Nathalie’s own cheerful demeanor faltered as she remembered the look on his face when he heard her cry out a moment before. Even after four years, he still worried for her. She tried to lighten the mood. “I’m more than used to cleaning up your messes as an assistant. It only makes sense that the habit would continue as a wife, doesn’t it?”

To her relief, his face softened. “I wouldn’t last a day without you,  _ ma cheri _ .”

She turned around and put her arms around his neck, hoping he was sufficiently distracted from the rag she still held in one hand. “We both know it.” She stood on tiptoes, bringing her face close to his, but just before their lips touched, she pressed the cold damp cloth to the back of his neck. 

Her husband flinched and his eyes snapped open. Nathalie met them, no longer bothering to hide a smirk. “You...give me that.” He reached to grab the rag from her, but she ducked and twisted out of his arms and darted off toward the other end of the kitchen. He chased after her with a look of playful exasperation. Nathalie led him a couple laps around the room before she slowed down, giving him the chance to catch her in his arms and pull her in for a kiss which quickly became heated. She let it go on for a few moments before pulling away.

“Not now, Monsieur Agreste,” she teased. “We still have a birthday surprise for your son to prepare. And eggs to clean up.”

“Surely they can wait,  _ Madame Agreste _ .”

“Mind your hands,” Nathalie retorted, lightly smacking away one that had wandered to her hip, “or I’ll give you another dose of cold water.”

At that moment, they both heard a small cough from the doorway. “Um...I found the burn gel.”

“Ah, yes.” Nathalie tugged at the hem of her shirt, feeling her face turn warm. “Thank you, Marinette. We...didn’t get around to cleaning up, I’m afraid.”

“Don’t worry about it. Can you do that, Monsieur Agreste? I’m just going to wrap Nathalie’s hands for her.” 

Marinette treated the burns as though she had plenty of practice, which Nathalie supposed wasn’t surprising, given that the girl had grown up in a bakery. In no time at all, her palms were coated with cooling gel and bandaged with gauze. “Now, you should still be able to help, as long as you’re careful,” Marinette said, and looked over to the sink where Gabriel was rinsing out the rag, having finished cleaning up the floor. “I’ll wash out the pot and we can start that part over, and we need to get some more eggs, of course, but we should still...what time  _ is _ it, anyway?”

“Almost four,” said Gabriel, and Marinette made a concerned sound. “What time was Adrien supposed to be home?”

“Four-thirty. We’re not going to get it done. I didn’t realize it was so late.”

Gabriel sighed, the frustration from earlier creeping back onto his face. “Wonderful.”

Nathalie went over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s all right. Maybe he would like to finish the baking with us when he gets back.”

He waited so long before responding that Nathalie wasn’t sure if he was going to. “I wanted this birthday to go well,” he said at last, quietly. “I still have so much to make up for.”

“Oh,  _ mon amour _ . You’re trying, that’s what matters to him. It’s not like he’s short of baked goods with Marinette in his life.” Nathalie stretched up and kissed his cheek. “I’m proud of you for putting in the effort today.”

She put an arm around him and leaned against his side, smiling to herself as she felt his tense muscles relax at her touch. It still struck her sometime how amazing it was that he had fallen in love with her, out of the blue as if it were her first time realizing it. Today was one of those days.

Just then, they heard a voice from somewhere else in the house. “Marinette? Father? Nathalie? Is anyone here? I got home early.”

“In the kitchen, Adrien,” Marinette called, casting a  _ nothing-to-be-done-about-it-now _ look over her shoulder at the older Agrestes. A moment later, Adrien poked his head around the doorframe. 

“Hey, I have a surprise!” He brought a large white box out from behind his back with a flourish. “Nino and the other guys got me a birthday cake, and I saved the extra for you.”

For a few seconds, the kitchen was dead silent. Then Marinette started to giggle. Nathalie pressed a hand to her mouth and buried her face in her husband’s chest, and as she did she felt him, too, shaking with laughter. 


End file.
